Orochimaru (NinjaofTheWest)
Orochimaru (大蛇丸, Orochimaru) is one of Konohagakure's legendary Sannin. With a life-ambition to learn all of the world's secrets, Orochimaru seeks immortality so that he might live all of the lives necessary to accomplish his task. He defected from Konoha rather than be persecuted for his ambitions, and for many years sought the village's destruction in order to take revenge and demonstrate what he has learned. After several apparent deaths in the pursuit of his goals, Orochimaru realises his approach is flawed through Kabuto Yakushi and begins monitoring the choices and actions of his former associate, Sasuke Uchiha. Background Orochimaru was an orphan who became a pupil of Hiruzen Sarutobi alongside Jiraiya and Tsunade. Compared to the more laid back Jiraiya, Orochimaru stood out as a genius — his talents, knowledge, and determination were considered by Hiruzen to be that of a prodigy seen once in a generation. According to Tsunade, Orochimaru had a twisted personality even as a child. His sadistic attitude was presumably due to the death of his parents. At some point after losing them, Orochimaru found a white snake near his parents' grave, with Hiruzen's explanation of it representing fortune and rebirth inspiring Orochimaru to study kinjutsu and obtain knowledge of all techniques. Jiraiya theorised that Orochimaru went down this path in an attempt to forget his painful memories. During the Second Shinobi World War, Orochimaru joined Jiraiya and Tsunade in fighting Hanzō, who gave them the title of Konoha's "Three Legendary Shinobi" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin) as a reward for surviving their battle with him, while the rest of their group were easily slaughtered in the process.6 On their way back to Konoha, they encountered three Amegakure orphans, with Orochimaru proposing a mercy killing before Jiraiya chose to train them instead. In the anime, Orochimaru orchestrated the last known rampage of the Eight-Tails in Kumogakure by infiltrating the village while disguised as a Kumo-nin and posing as Fukai's doctor in order to trick him into taking special genjutsu inducing pills, allowing him to extract the tailed beast. After its rampage, Orochimaru obtained the severed horn of the Eight-Tails and harvested Fukai's DNA from it. Reincarnation Not too long after his previous defeat by Shirou, Orochimaru was resurrected by an unknown accomplice. The unknown person had infused him with different things to make him powerful, such as the Rinnegan, etc. Personality Orochimaru possesses a complex personality, however more often than not he was described as twisted by a large number of people, including Tsunade. Jiraiya speculated that this was due to the fact that both of his parents died when he was at a very young age, along with his horror for Tsunade losing Nawaki and later shedding tears when she lost Dan, imply that Orochimaru grew to disdain the fragility of human life and how it affected those still living, which led him to desire immortality. To that end, the primary purpose of Orochimaru's human experimentation is to test what modifications the human body can endure and harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru had hoped to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being", unable to die and able to achieve his secondary goal to learn every ninja technique in the world, which would normally take many lifetimes to obtain. According to Sasuke, becoming cruel with any good he had as a member of Team Hiruzen gone, Orochimaru's agenda made him develop a god complex and valued himself while delighting in striking terror in his first impressions. Though causing conflict to ease his boredom, Orochimaru seems to have no interest in wars started by others.26 His charisma also attracts a number of followers, many of which he would not hesitate to send on potential suicide missions if for his own personal benefit, expressing some remorse if they're unable to properly complete a task, having no sentimental attachments to any of them despite their values. Despite this, Orochimaru has genuine interest in the development of his underlings and experiments. Taking Sasuke as an apprentice, seeing him as a prodigy like himself, Orochimaru intended to take the youth's body to obtain the Sharingan to reach another step in his goal of immortality and learning every technique in the world. This goal has developed to the point of obsession. However, despite knowing that Sasuke was willing to do anything for revenge, including sacrificing his own body, Orochimaru did anticipate treachery from his disciple and showed only a small level of surprise when it actually occurred. What truly surprised Orochimaru was Sasuke's decision to follow his own path and ultimately choosing defend the village he initially swore to destroy, one that Orochimaru openly approved and curious to see what the end result it. He also had an initial disdain toward Naruto Uzumaki, believing him to be a poor excuse for a ninja until he defeated Kabuto with the Rasengan. Despite attempting to kill Naruto at the time after coming to the realisation that he would become a threat to him in the future, Orochimaru became interested in Naruto's development, provoking Naruto during their battle to see his full abilities at the time. Though coming to hate his home village, orchestrating a few attempts to destroy it, Orochimaru despised his former Akatsuki colleagues more. Throughout Part II, if Orochimaru was not busy with Sasuke's development, he would try to cripple the Akatsuki's operations, seen in the "Sai and Sasuke Arc" as well as the "Three-Tails Arc". He expresses delight over the death of Sasori and later convinced Sasuke from killing Team Kakashi so they would thin out the Akatsuki membership. An aspect of Orochimaru's personality is also his greatest weakness: his arrogance. He truly believed he is immortal at times, attacking recklessly against powerful opponents such as his former teacher and Itachi Uchiha. Both times he was left crippled in some way since he either wanted to make his opponent suffer, like against Hiruzen, or because he was too uninformed to face his opponent, like against Itachi. Despite his distinct lack of morals, Orochimaru seems to be well-versed in psychological warfare and displays insightful wisdom when disparaging Tobirama for the actions resulting from his policies. After being revived by Sasuke, his personality changed a bit. While he still wished that he could gain Sasuke's body, he acknowledged that he was too weak at the time. He also realised that copying someone completely was a mistake from his observation of Kabuto and displayed interest in Sasuke's "different path". Later, he felt sentimental over his failed candidacy for being Hokage, though this may be because he was in front of his master and the Fourth. Wanting to see Sasuke's path, he chose to fight alongside the Uchiha instead of ignoring Madara's war like he planned, and even made it a priority to heal Tsunade and the other Kage after their defeat before hurrying to the battlefield. Orochimaru also shows a sick sense of humour at the time, from using the memory of Sasuke stabbing him to convince Karin to aid the youth again to his comical method of threatening her and Suigetsu into cooperating to heal Tsunade. Orochimaru has also shown signs of regret, seemingly saddened by his childhood friend Jiraiya's death. Orochimaru does also seem to genuinely care about Sasuke's well being, as he originally thought it was best to take his time figuring out how to battle Guruguru but quickly decided against taking his time when Karin sensed Sasuke was on the verge of death. Appearance Originally, Orochimaru was a tall man with extremely pale skin and waist-length black hair. He had a long face with pronounced cheekbones, golden eyes with slits in his pupils and purple markings around his eyes — a reference to his snake-like nature. Although he has taken on new bodies repeatedly, he has modified them each to resemble his original form, minus the height differences. He apparently used his Vanishing Facial Copy Technique on his original body so he can wear it over his hosts' faces as a mask. Orochimaru is sometimes seen sporting different attires. His attire hasn't changed since his reincarnation. He usually wears plain grey garbs with black pants and a thick purple rope belt tied in a large knot behind his back and blue tomoe-shaped earrings. He is seen wearing a black polo neck under it. As a young child, he wore long white robes with purple lining embroidered with black or yellow tomoe markings, tied with a purple ribbon forming a bow in the front, as well as white leggings and black open-toed shoes, and mesh top with a purple lining under it. In various flashbacks, he is also seen wearing the Oto ninja uniform and forehead protector, as well as the Konoha ninja uniform. During his time in Konoha, his casual wear usually consisted of a dark kimono shirt with violet lining over a mesh shirt, bandages that he uses as a sash, dark pants, and armour around his hips. On his left hand, he has an intricate tattoo that he uses to summon snakes. On one occasion, in which he proposed the request for Tsunade to heal his arms, he was seen wearing long purple robes with a loose pink vest, as well as a off-grey kimono with a polo neck in Zaku's flashback. On few occasions, for instance in Kimimaro's childhood flashbacks, Orochimaru is also seen wearing a pale yellowish furisode-style kimono, with a black polo neck underneath tied with a dark brown sash, and flat dark-coloured zōri After countless experiments with his body, his true form became a giant snake ("The Great White Serpent") made up of a multitude of smaller snakes, with long and spiky black hair, a scaled face with snake-like teeth and a long tongue, black eye markings, and a pointed chin. After being resurrected by Sasuke, Orochimaru has returned to his taller and seemingly original height before taking Gen'yūmaru's body. He also donned a black cloak and hood somewhere between his rebirth and arriving to Konoha. Abilities Being one of the legendary Sannin, as well as a former member of the S-rank criminal organisation Akatsuki, Orochimaru is an extraordinarily powerful ninja, being Kage-level in his own right. Even among the Sannin, he was the one who originally stood out for individual ability. He was considered as a child prodigy that appeared only once a generation. His skills were so great that during the time of his invasion of Konoha, the Third Hokage feared no one in the village would be able to defeat him or even fight on equal footing with him, even himself, and that Orochimaru was strong enough to take down an entire small nation on his own. Even Kakashi Hatake, one of Konoha's greatest shinobi, was filled with tremendous fear when he met him during the Chūnin Exams, and himself admitted that he wouldn't even stand a chance against his level of power. Sasuke Uchiha and Suigetsu Hōzuki also stated that the former's victory over Orochimaru was only because the latter was already severely weakened prior to their confrontation. Due to him rarely being shown fighting, he has only displayed a limited amount of techniques, though his fighting style is very fluid and it stands to reason that in his efforts to learn all existing techniques, his array of abilities has probably become larger than any other single person and that he has vast knowledge on all forms of techniques. Since his latest reincarnation, all of his abilities have significantly improved and he even gained a few powerful jutsu, including a new form, his sage form. During his battle against the Third Hokage, his arms were sealed by the latter, preventing Orochimaru from forming hand signs and effectively stripping him of most of his technique arsenal. Despite this, he remained a formidable opponent, still able to hold his own against both Jiraiya (albeit greatly weakened by poison) and Tsunade simultaneously. In Part II with his hands physically restored, he was able to toy with Naruto in his three-tailed form while his body was greatly weakened. Even with the danger Naruto later imposed in his four-tailed form, Orochimaru could still battle evenly against Naruto and found great entertainment from the transformed Naruto's considerable power, later even expressed regret that he couldn't complete the battle as his body finally began to give in. After acquiring the Uzumaki's mask of the Shinigami, he was able to break the seal on his arms, regaining his former strength,27 which has later showed able to calmly fight back the Ten-Tails in its final form. Ninjutsu Wishing to obtain all of the techniques in the world, Orochimaru has a vast arsenal of techniques at his disposal, ranging from simple offensive ones, which nonetheless become deadly when performed by him, to higher ranking, more complicated ones. Even at a young age, he was able to utilise his former master's signature Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.28 Orochimaru also exhibited mastery with the Transformation Technique, as he was able to view Sasuke's battle with Yoroi Akadō during the Chūnin Exams, undetected. He was also able to pose as the Fourth Kazekage for weeks, fooling the entire village of Sunagakure, including its elite shinobi and the ones closest to the dead Kazekage. After Orochimaru took over a White Zetsu spore clone, Orochimaru gained access to the clone's ability to change its appearance.29 He is also capable of utilising medical ninjutsu and when conducting experiments, he would make use of the chakra scalpel.30 In terms of defensive techniques, Orochimaru uses both Summoning: Rashōmon and Summoning: Triple Rashōmon, in which he summons a varying number of large demonic gates that are capable of enduring even the most intense forms of damage. Orochimaru can also use a technique to avoid damage, and another to temporarily paralyse an opponent. Nature Transformation Orochimaru, being skilled and diverse in elemental ninjutsu, has shown capable of utilising at least two nature transformations; both wind and earth. With the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough he could level an entire forest with a powerful gust of wind. In the anime, one of the other few elemental techniques he was seen using is the Earth Release Shadow Clone, which could create copy of himself out of mud that can attack on his behalf. After taking possession of a Zetsu clone's body, Orochimaru acquired Hashirama Senju's cells along with the latter's Wood Release kekkei genkai and the other half of its composite natures, the Water Release nature transformation. Snake Techniques Orochimaru's trademark trait is his affinity with snakes, in addition to impacting the appearance and composition of his true form, and granting him the ability to extend his limbs to abnormal lengths and to take on snake-like traits in battle, caused him to learn a number of snake-related abilities, including learning Sage Mode. His snake-related techniques have been referred to as Power of the White Snake. One such ability is being able to summon giant snakes to fight alongside him in battle, made possible by the summoning contract tattooed on his arm. This allows him to summon snakes within his vicinity, as opposed to having to place his hand on a surface.31 If need be, Orochimaru can morph into a giant snake, despite being slightly smaller in size to his larger summonings.31 His signature summon was Manda, a colossal snake which was described as the largest in the world, with immense fighting capabilities. With Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, Orochimaru can instantly call forth snakes from his sleeves and mouth to attack his opponents in large numbers with venomous bites. A stronger variation of this technique was the Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, in which the summoned snakes grow noticeably in both numbers and size. Another usage of snakes comes in the form of his signature weapon, the Sword of Kusanagi, the Kusanagi of Japanese legend. The sword, kept within the mouth of a snake within his own throat, is able to extend to great lengths to attack enemies that are very far away, can be controlled remotely by Orochimaru, and can return to him by turning in a snake. Although he is capable of wielding the sword normally with great proficiency, it's not uncommon for him to use it without ever removing it from his mouth. The sword is stated to be able to cut through almost anything, and despite failing to penetrate four-tailed Naruto's chakra shroud, did push him back an incredible length. In the anime, he is also capable of having numerous Kusanagi-like blades sprout from the mouths of the snakes he summons. His strongest technique is the Eight Branches Technique, which allows him to transform into an eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent bigger than the already colossal Manda, another reference to the Japanese myth. This was described as the ultimate snake-related technique, which turned the user into an immensely powerful "Dragon God". Fūinjutsu Although downplayed for much of the series, Orochimaru is also very skilled in the use of fūinjutsu, even in the midst of battle. Most notably, he has been seen using the Five Elements Seal, to seal off another's access to chakra and thus, rendering them useless. Using this technique, Orochimaru was not only able land a seal on an enraged Naruto, but also completely subdue the Nine-Tails' chakra. In the anime, he was shown capable of using its counterpart, the Five Elements Unseal. His prowess with it was great enough to release the seal and extract a tailed beast from its jinchūriki.9 He can also apply his seals on targets to temporarily immobilise them.32 Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation Orochimaru is one of the three people capable of performing Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, further perfecting the technique developed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. In his first shown use, he reincarnated both the technique's creator and Hashirama Senju to fight against his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Though Hiruzen sealed the part of his soul that represented his arms to bare him from using Impure World Reincarnation, Orochimaru used the Shinigami Mask during the Fourth Shinobi World War to spiritually restore himself and summoned all four Hokage at once.33 His prowess with this technique seems to have increased, seemingly from acquiring Kabuto's new knowledge of it, as Tobirama noted that the reincarnated Hokage were now nearly to their full power as opposed to his previous attempt. Using Hashirama's cells, Orochimaru can strengthen his control over the reincarnated Hokage,3435 as seen when he was able to completely immobilise Tobirama who was resisting control for a brief time, though Hashirama was still able to easily break Orochimaru's restraint. Immortality Techniques Through the use of his "true form" is with his Living Corpse Reincarnation, Orochimaru can transfer his soul to another body and extend his life indefinitely. To use this technique, Orochimaru must leave his former body. Once he has done this, he swallows the new body and transports its current inhabitant to a dimension within himself where he absorbs them, thus allowing him to take over their body. Orochimaru can only perform this technique once every three years, which is also around the time that his new body begins to reject him and forces him to find a new host. Although he might leave their bodies behind, the souls of those whose bodies he has taken always remain within Orochimaru's subconscious. After taking over another body, Orochimaru modifies it to suit his theme of snakes. He can also alter the face and body of his host to take on his own original form. Orochimaru's other method of immortality are the cursed seals he developed. In addition to his senjutsu chakra, each cursed seal contains a portion of Orochimaru's consciousness, which allows him to share the senses of those who bear his seals. In the event that he is killed or sealed, he can be revived through one of his cursed seals if an individual presses flesh containing his DNA up to the cursed seal and uses the Evil Releasing Method. Through this process, Orochimaru can be completely resurrected any number of times, as long as there are enough remaining cursed seals and pieces of his DNA. Senjutsu During his research on Jūgo's clan, Orochimaru eventually tracked down the source of their power when he discovered the Ryūchi Cave and senjutsu. Here, he attempted to learn senjutsu as well as Sage Mode. However he was unable to use this power to its full potential due to being unable to find a host body that could bear such an ability, making it an unsuitable option for battle altogether, but now he can. He does have enough knowledge to both release another person's Sage Mode and absorb the senjutsu chakra inside them as seen with Kabuto.36 To compensate for this flaw, Orochimaru developed other novel uses for his senjutsu chakra: the cursed seals.37 Combining this chakra with the enzyme produced by Jūgo, he was able to create these unique seals, which triggered a change near-identical to that of the Sage Transformation, but with different benefits and drawbacks. The senjutsu chakra locked in these seals is naturally quite powerful as Kabuto was amazed at a portion of Orochimaru's chakra he absorbed from Anko,38 even after he assimilated the collective DNA of team Taka, the Sound Five and of Orochimaru himself. These seals also carried the additional benefit of acting as anchors to Orochimaru's consciousness, allowing him to observe events through anyone branded by the seal and even revive him any number of times under the right circumstances.37 Intelligence From his childhood days, Orochimaru was identified as a genius shinobi and a once-in-a-generation prodigy. During his lifetime, his associations with powerful shinobi and groups, such as his tutoring by the Third Hokage and his stints with both the Root and Akatsuki organisations, as well as his later solo exploits into gaining knowledge, allowed him to develop and gain access to vast amounts of information. Orochimaru is a master planner and manipulator. For years, he evaded capture from both Konoha and the Akatsuki, all the while setting up a network of fully supplied hideouts throughout various countries. He was also able to manipulate the entire village of Sunagakure into invading Konoha, by posing as the Fourth Kazekage without anyone noticing, having killed the real one before the invasion. He was capable of manipulating multiple people into becoming his willing pawns and guinea pigs for his experiments, using a combination of manipulation, insight into a victim's past and the promise of power to gain their loyalty. The greatest examples of this are Kabuto and Kimimaro, who idolised the Sannin and showed nothing but absolute loyalty and respect for him. He even developed a fail-safe in case he was ever killed or sealed in the form of his cursed seals. At some point in time, Orochimaru and Kabuto learned that Tobi was not the real Madara Uchiha, although it would ultimately be Kabuto who would use this knowledge to his full advantage. This wealth of research has proven to have devastating effects long after Orochimaru's sealing, as seen through Kabuto's performances during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Due to this research, he is easily capable of deducing the workings of an enemy's techniques and fighting style. Body Modifications Over the years, Orochimaru has conducted various experiments on his own body, thus modifying it greatly. This in turn has granted him an exponential increase in his bodies physical durability, speed, strength, and survival capabilities. It is also because of these experiments, Orochimaru is completely invulnerable to conventional techniques. He has endured a flurry of punches from Tsunade's monstrous superhuman strength, a direct attack from Naruto's three-tailed state, and a direct hit from Sasuke's Dragon Fire Technique,31 all of which were able to only damage his face mask. Even being bisected by a four-tailed Naruto was unable to slow him down, as he simply reconnected himself. Other modifications include manipulating the shape of his body and shedding himself of it, to completely recreate and heal injuries. Thus, even if Orochimaru is unable to transfer bodies, he can easily heal and evade attacks, rendering him virtually immortal in battle. These abilities are otherwise known as, The Power of the White Snake. In his quest to gain immortality, Orochimaru has made even more gruesome modifications to his body, resulting in his natural form taking on the appearance of a giant, white snake composed of many smaller snakes. The snakes that compose Orochimaru's body can extend themselves to strike and bind targets, and if Orochimaru is sliced to pieces, the body can instantly reform, making him very difficult to kill. Additionally, the blood that is released by killing the snakes is poisonous, evaporating into the air and paralysing anyone who has breathed it in, something that makes long lasting fights against him a bad choice. Experimentation Due to his desire to obtain all known ninja techniques, Orochimaru developed extensive research work throughout his years, performing experiments on himself and on other individuals to further comprehend their abilities and develop new ones from them. Such examples include him discovering the workings of Jūgo's clan's abilities and his subsequent development of the cursed seal, the modifications done to his own body, the extensive research done to Hashirama Senju's cells as well as integrating them into Danzō Shimura, amongst many other test subjects. Most notably, Orochimaru was able to rewrite Yamato's DNA to that of Hashirama's in the attempt to recreate his considerable powers. Although Yamato survived the procedure, he was a success among many failures. Kabuto once noted, that Orochimaru could even protect the cellular structure of his experiments, preventing anyone from gaining knowledge from them.39 In the anime it was revealed that even from a very small sample, Orochimaru could cultivate cells to recreate the origin, as shown with what he did with the horn of Gyūki.9 The horn itself not only grew to its original size, but also produced vast amounts of chakra, identical to the latter. Although later put into use by Kabuto, the extracted chakra was potent enough to create a pseudo-jinchūriki, with power equal to that of a true jinchūriki.9 With his expertise in the medical field, Orochimaru was able to concoct a series of drugs with any desired effect, each designed to aid him in what ever he's doing. At one point in time, Orochimaru created genjutsu pills that were strong enough to subdue a jinchūriki and their tailed beast simultaneously. In another, Orochimaru created the Mind Awakening Pill, to help speed up the cursed seal's progression. Chakra Orochimaru has been noted, on many occasions, to have extremely foul and powerful chakra. Upon releasing his chakra, it causes a dense effect on the atmosphere. When fighting his former sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the sheer force of both individuals' releasing their chakra caused the building they were fighting upon to crack.40 Likewise, his chakra alone can incite fear into his foes, causing them to hallucinate or render them incapable of breathing.4142 In addition, Orochimaru has shown considerable chakra control. During the three years his hands were sealed by Hiruzen, preventing Orochimaru from performing hand signs, the Sannin was still able to perform various less-complicated yet powerful techniques. Other Skills Orochimaru is skilled in taijutsu, able to effortlessly over-power Sasuke with his two-tomoe Sharingan. He also showed immense strength, as when he was walking to Tanzaku Quarters, he was immensely frustrated by the pain he was in and used only a kick to knock down a tree.43 In another instance he was able to strike with enough force to destroy a large tree, despite being a distance away from it.31 He is also skilled in kenjutsu, able to use the Sword of Kusanagi to fend of the masterful staff-fighting skills of his former teacher in the Third Hokage. Much like Yoroi Akadō, he can quickly absorb chakra through hand contact, as shown when absorbed all of his chakra back from Kabuto instantly; using the chakra to strengthen himself. However, unlike Yoroi, Orochimaru is also able to absorb any information from the one whose chakra he's absorbing. He is also has adept skill in Space–Time Ninjutsu, having designed a technique to imprison a target's soul. He also possesses immense skills at subterfuge, escapism, espionage, and tracking, being able to track Kabuto Yakushi for years unnoticed by everyone all while he trained him to be a more powerful shinobi under his tutelage. Tools Conch Shell Mace Sword of Kusanagi Sword